Sensha-do, Aussie Style
by Cptdave
Summary: Ooarai has survived, a new year begins, new challenges await, new enemies, and new friends, this time from down under. The Aussies have come to play! How will this affect Anglerfish team and the rest of the girls at Ooarai? How will this affect Sensha-do in Japan!
1. Prologue

Prologue

"We're sorry Mr. Walther, but our tournament schedules have all been already decided, there just isn't any room for your nation to join in any of them." A gray haired woman said sadly as she looked at the younger man that sat further down the table.

"There must be something that my nation can do! We have several promising young tankers that just moved up to high school, and I'm sure we could form a team to be able to compete in any of your tournaments if you just give Australia a chance." He tried to counter passionately.

As he looked around the table, seeing the names of each nation's minster or secretary of education, hoping that ONE of them would help out his nation's lone school ship in showing that it could participate in the upcoming World Tournament. Unfortunately, each face was either cold and calculating, or sad that they couldn't help the young, and new, minister of education for Australia. As he kept looking around his eyes fell upon the minister from Japan, whose expression was thoughtful.

"Sakemoto-san?" Mr. Walther asked, looking hopeful.

"Maybe something can be done Walther-san. But it will take a significant change in what we had originally planned for this year's tournament." The older Japanese man said slowly.

"I'm willing to help you in anyway to plan it, if you're willing to let Levinta High School participate!" He said, trying to restrain his hopeful excitement.

"If your school ship can form a tankery team of at least five tanks, then I think there may be a way, but it won't be easy and it will be unorthodox Walther-san. If you can do that, and send me the proof, then we will accept your team into our tournament. We have decided that this year we are going to allow the smaller tankery schools to pair up together, and thus allow the larger schools to field larger teams. If you can form a team, I know the perfect school to pair them up with." Minister Sakemoto said, his outward expression one of calm benevolence, while inside his thoughts, his mind whirled with how he could turn this to his advantage to finally eliminate the thorn in his side.

"We can make that happen Sakemoto-san, as soon as the team is formed I will let you know!" Minister Walther said.

Not long after that, the meeting broke up and each minister or secretary went their separate ways.

In Sydney, the members of the Levinta High School Student Counsel sat outside the office of the Minister of Education, waiting for their appointment. None of the four young ladies knew why they had been called here. Normally they would have expected the school ship's captain to be here with them, as well as the student counsels of the middle school and college that were aboard their ship. They knew that their school ship was vastly different from the rest of the world's so they were deeply concerned that only they were there.

Suddenly the door opened and the secretary, a gray haired matriarch, looked out at them. "The Minister is ready to see all of you." She said simply as she opened the door wider for them to enter.

As the four young politicians entered the office, they saw the young man who had recently become the Minister of Education in Australia.

"Minister Walther, the student counsel of Levinta High School." The secretary said almost coldly before she walked back to her desk.

The four young ladies stood before the Minister, who sat behind his desk. He looked at them carefully, wondering how they were going to take what he had to say to them.

"Welcome and thank you for coming." He said kindly as he waved at them to take a seat in the chairs that sat before his desk.

"Thank you for asking us to come and see you Minister." said an average height red haired young woman as she and her three friends took their seats.

"We were curious as to why you had asked just us to come before you though Minister, and not the rest of the senior staff aboard the Sydney." the young brunette sitting next to the red head said calculatingly.

"All will be answered in time, but first, introductions. I am Minister Daniel Walther. I'm new to this position and I wanted to meet with all of you, not just to get a feel for you, but also t o let you get to know me. I know all of your were just elected, and as I have seen is the tradition for our schools, you'll be in office until you graduate, so please, tell me about yourselves." He invited as he leaned forward, resting his chin in his hands.

The four young ladies looked at each other and the red head nodded. "My name is Amy McKay, President of Levinta High School. These are my friends, Vice President Elisabeth Mayhew." She started and waving at the brunette next to her. "Our Public Relations Officer, Mary Martin." She directed the Minister's attention to the blonde sitting on the other side of Amy, who smiled lightly and waved. "And finally, our Treasurer, Anna White." She said introducing the other brunette who nodded to the Minister, her eyes calculating what this might cost them.

"Thank President McKay. Now then as to why I have invited just you and your staff here, instead of the whole staff aboard the Sydney is quite simple." The Minister paused, as if gathering his thoughts. "Things have declined recently here in Australia in regards to the continued...benefit...of school ships. Thankfully your school will not be suffering the same fate that almost happened to that school in Japan, as there are several high ranking supporters in the Government. However the largest complaint from your ship's opponents has been the lack of a Tankery team for the past decade. Most complain that the sole reason we even built the Sydney was for the tankery crews to be able to practice without interference from the issues that usually arise from land based schools."

"So what is it that the Government is wanting our school to do?" Amy asked cautiously.

"Form a tankery team, either as a club or an actual class, this upcoming school year, and take them to the tournament that we have been allowed to attend in Japan." He told them.

"A tankery team is very expensive Minister Walther." Anna said with her light soprano voice, attracting his attention. "Money that our school currently does not have, nor can we afford to cut any other activities without cause, as unlike Ooarai, our clubs and electives are actually seeing plenty of student support at this time."

"That is true Treasurer White, however, I can assure you that there will not only be enough money for your tankery team, but I can promise you a dedicated instructor from the Royal Australian Army, as well as tanks. If you can get the people, and the maintenance teams to maintain your tanks by the students themselves, I can promise you funding specifically for the team, and I might be able to help out a little more." Mr. Walther countered.

"How many tanks are we going to need to fill? And what kind of support and incentives could we expect?" Mary asked as she leaned forward, her mind starting to whirl with ideas of how to spin this for the student body.

"I might be able to get you up to ten tanks, and as for incentives, consider this, one of the largest organizations that wants tankery to be started back up, aside from the Royal Army, Vickers Arms Manufacturer, Ford Motor Company, and a couple other big companies that have produced the tanks that are used now for tankery. I have been in communications with some of them, and they have agreed to give us tanks, parts, ammunition and funding for sponsorship, as long as we participate in tournaments and we don't let Tankery fade out from the Sydney ever again." He told them.

"But what about the middle school and college level circuits? Are they getting teams as well?" Elisabeth asked, concerned that they were being targeted for some reason.

"Eventually Ms. Mayhew, eventually. Unfortunately I was directed by the Prime Minister to pick only ONE school to start, and if things go well, then we shall expand. He has even promised that if your school does well, he will fight with Parliament to increase the budget for all of your schools to cover the costs of not just a start up team, but to expand them as well." He told them.

"And the other incentives that you have hinted at Sir?" Mary probbed.

"There is a chance, if Levinta does well in the tournament in Japan, that not only will a scholarship be granted to every student that is part of the Tankery team and the mechanics that work with them, but we will be admitted to the World Tankery Tournament, which, for the top four teams, includes a significant prize, which will be given to each member of the winning teams." Minister Walther informed them.

"I see. How long do we have to form a team Minister Walther?" Amy asked, knowing that her friend's thoughts were all whirling with ideas on how that money could be used, especially if the prize for being in the top four teams meant a monetary prize being given to the school as well.

"You have a till the start of the school year President McKay." He told her.

"Well then, I guess we had better get going on that." Amy said.

With that Daniel nodded and dismissed the four young ladies to go start working on making this happen.

In Tokyo, at the office of the Minister of Education, Miho Nishizumi, Saori Takebe, Hana Izusu, and Mako Reizei all sat outside, awaiting being called into the office. All four had been voted into office to replace the previous Student Body Counsel after they had graduated at the end of the previous school year. They were all dreading this meeting, thinking that the Ministry would go back on its word and close down their school ship. They hadn't given up hope, but this was highly unusual after the agreement that had been made last year.

After they had been sitting there for almost an hour, the door was opened and they heard a male voice tell them to enter the office. As they walked in, the older man who was sitting behind the desk stared at the four girls, all in their Tankery uniforms, with a blank expression.

The four girls came to a stop in front of the desk and bowed politely to the Minister.

"Ooarai Girls High School Student Body Counsel present as per your direction Minister." Miho said a little hesitantly, not certain how to deal with this man, who had attempted to shut down her chosen school.

"Yes, I was expecting President Kadotani, and not you Commander Nishizumi." The man said calmly.

"Kadotani-sempai has graduated Minister-sama. With her graduation, the school has elected myself as President." Miho informed him.

"I see, well this will make things much easier then. Your school, as per the agreement made with the Kadotani administration, will remain open, for now, however, your position is still tenuous at best." He warned them.

"I understand Minister-sama, what must we do to convince the Ministry that Ooarai is a good school and should remain open?" Miho asked politely.

"This year's tankery tournament will be different, we are pairing up the smaller, or weaker schools together and doubling the amount of tanks at each level of competition that are allowed to be fielded. Due to there being an odd number of weaker or lesser tankery teams available, we have allowed the Australian Levinta High School tankery team to enter our tournament. Their team is just starting this year after a decade of being inactive. Because of this, it is the opinion of the Ministry, that this team will be paired up with Ooarai Girls High School to work together for this tournament." He told them.

"I see... Thank you Minister-sama for this information. Do you have any other information about this new team? Or how the set up will be?" Hana asked softly, probing for information.

The Minister looked over at her. "And you are?" He asked almost coldly.

"Vice President Hana Izusu, Minster-sama." She answered.

"Well Izusu-san, I have not received that information yet from the Ministry of Education in Australia at this time. I have been informed that I will be given the information within a month. As for the upcoming tournament, the initial rounds until the quarter-finals will allow for up to 20 tanks to be fielded, quarter-finals will be up to 30 tanks, semi-finals will be 40 tanks, and 50 tanks for the final match will be allowed if any school that makes it that far." He told them. "Now then, I'm sure that you have plenty to prepare, you all are dismissed."

The four girls bowed politely to the Minister, then turned and left quickly. Once outside and the door shut the Minister grinned evilly.

"And when you fail, I will use that as a reason to cut funding to your school and slowly choke it out of existence." He said softly to himself.

Outside the office the four members of Anglerfish team looked at each other.

"I think we need to get Yukarin to do some digging." Saori said slowly as they started to walk away.

"Agreed, something about this doesn't seem right." Miho said, shaking her head. "This might be an excuse to try to go back at his word and close our school down, we're going to have to be careful."

"That is going to be difficult for them to arrange, as it will be obvious if they try it by cutting funding rapidly." Mako said slowly, in her usual fashion.

"I wonder what this school is going to be like, and if we can work well with their team." Miho said as they left the building.

"I hope we get the chance to meet some boys!" Saori said, excited at the chance. "After all, I hear that other schools are coed outside of Japan!"

"Is that all you think about Saori?" Mako asked, poking fun at her friend.

"Hey! That's not nice Mako!" Saori complained, causing the other two friends to chuckle as they head back to the port, where the school ship was docked.

TO BE CONTINUED!


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

First Time for Everything

Amy and the other members of the Student Council were sitting in her office, looking over the papers on her desk.

"So this is it? This is all we've been able to find to field a 'proper' tankery team?" she asked her friends and subordinates as she looked over the roster.

"I'm afraid so, Amy," Elisabeth said sadly. "Crystal King, an amateur radio operator. Megan Wilson, a loader from a middle school team. Eliza McKay, your cousin, also a loader. Angela Campos, a very diplomatic, but obvious leader type. Lea Schultz, a little on the small side for a tanker, but she has spunk and drive. Dawn Volking, a quiet yet determined and experienced tank commander; she actually brings four other experienced middle school tankers with her. And then there is Willow Gonzalez, I've never met a girl with more leadership qualities, other than you, but she only brings two other tankers with her."

"Thirteen volunteers? That's it? This project is doomed," Anna moaned, putting her head on her crossed arms on the President's desk.

The four sat there wondering how they would pull this off, as they didn't have enough people, even if they had joined the team. They only had another week to come up with enough to field the tanks they were going to get. They had a list of tanks, finally, and it was eclectic as hell, as if they were actually part of someone's private collection and not actual tankery tanks. Amy shook her head trying to figure out how they could make this work.

'Thirteen people, seventeen if we join, and we need forty!' Amy thought sadly.

Suddenly Mary sat up straight in her chair, her eyes widening as she scrambled for the tankery rule book for Japan. Her friends looked at her, wondering what was going through her head as she started to flip through the book, obviously looking for something.

"Come on, where is it!" she muttered to herself as she kept flipping through the rather thick tome. Amy and the others gazed at her, slightly amused and slightly exasperated with their sometimes scatter-brained friend. After several minutes of searching, she stopped flipping and started reading, occasionally turning a page as she muttered under her breath.

"AH HA! I KNEW IT!" Mary suddenly shouted as she slammed the book onto the desk, a wide grin split her face.

"Knew what, Mary?" Amy asked patiently.

"The answer to our problems! We've been looking at this entirely wrong!" Mary answered excitedly.

"Mary, while we love you as a friend, if you don't explain what the blazes you're talking about, I'm about to drag you out of this office and give your backside a tanning," Elisabeth threatened.

"It's so simple though! I don't know why we didn't think of it sooner!" Mary kept going on.

"MARY! ANSWER NOW!" Amy ordered, while Anna started to giggle at how their friend was going on.

Mary squeaked at the sudden yelling before she grinned wryly and answered her friend and boss. "Amy, the rules say that JAPANESE school ships are required to have female only tankery teams, as it is a female sport there, it says NOTHING about non-Japanese schools that are participating in a Japanese tournament being limited like that."

"Are you CERTAIN?! We don't have to have a female only team?!" Anna asked incredulously.

"Nope! We don't; we can have an all male team if we wanted to!" Mary told them. "Mind you, I think that would be a BAD idea from the PR side of things, in fact, I recommend that our Captain and Vice-Captain be female, even if their crews aren't wholly female."

"Well then what the bloody hell are you still sitting here for?!" Amy said sharply. "Go out there and recruit more tankers!"

"Yes Ma'am!" Mary said as she left, a wide grin on her face.

Around Levinta High School, students sat together during the lunch break. Most were talking about the upcoming school year, what their plans for the year were, and what elective classes they were taking. Small groups of students were gathered, talking amongst themselves excitedly about the new tankery class that was announced, at least the girls of the group were, the guys on the other hand were grumbling, not understanding why they weren't allowed to join when other nations allowed it.

"Listen David, I know you want to join the team, but it's just not possible right now," Angela Campos, a tall-for-her-age brunette, said to her shorter and lighter-haired friend.

"But I've checked the International Rules! There is NOTHING preventing us from joining except for bias!" David countered, obviously upset that he couldn't join his friends in tankery.

"He does have a point," said a taller and darker haired boy.

"That's not the point Nicholas," a very short, dark haired, pale young woman said. "If we have to form a female only team, then there MUST be a reason for it."

Both boys grumbled until a husky skinned pacific islander young woman spoke up. "Lea is right you two, there is a reason."

"Would you care to elaborate, Willow?" a rather stocky and dark haired young man asked her.

"Certainly Shawn. Dawn can back me up on this, but I've heard that we might be participating in the Japanese High School Tankery Tournament that is going to be opening up here in a couple more months," Willow told her friends.

"She's right, and the Japanese only allow women tankery teams for some reason," a pale, brown haired, glasses-wearing girl said. "So unless something changes, it looks like it will be us girls representing everyone."

"I still say it's not fair! Why are only girls allowed to participate in tankery in Japan?! What's wrong with us boys fighting alongside you?!" David ranted.

As Willow was about to say something, a tall, lanky, dark haired boy ran up to the group of friends. "Hey, hey! You guys are NOT going to believe this!" he said, gasping slightly as he had ran the entire way here.

"What has you all in a hurry Cale? Did Mary FINALLY agree?" Nicholas teased his friend.

Cale blushed before shaking his head. "No, damnit! And stay out of my love life ya bastard! This is something important to ALL of us!" he yelled at Nicholas.

"So what is it Cale?" Dawn asked encouragingly, trying to coax the information out of the excited young man.

"Well, as ya'll know, Mary and I have been friends for a long time." Cale started.

"Right, friends," David teased, only to be hit in the back of the head by both Willow and Angela.

"Stop it, David!" Angela scolded.

"Yeah let him finish," Willow added.

"Anyway, she knows how much I've been wanting to do tankery, and she just came and told me something wonderful!" Cale continued, ignoring the interaction between the three close friends.

"Cale, I love you like a brother, but if you don't tell us what the heck your girlfriend told you, I'm going to remove that which makes you a man," Lea threatened cheerfully.

Cale blanched at the threat and smiled weakly. "Well, if you want to touch that, you'll have to buy me dinner first. Also Mary told me that there is no restriction about who can join the tankery team anymore," he said slowly.

Before anything else could be said by anyone, David took off like he was shot out of a cannon, running faster than any of his friends thought that he would be capable of, considering he was the second-shortest one in the group.

"Wow, he can really run fast when motivated," Dawn commented casually.

As if by magic, her words caused the other guys in the group to take off running, aside from Cale, for the main office, following the trail of shoved students and knocked over trash cans that David had left in his rush to sign up for tankery.

"Aren't you going to join them Cale?" Willow asked.

"Nope, not one bit, Mary had a pre-filled out sign-up form for me, all it needed was my signature, so I'm the first one to sign up for the guys. Of course there will be an announcement about it later today as well, so hopefully we'll get enough people. Evidently, again according to Mary, we need something like 40 or so people to sign up to outfit the tanks that we are supposedly getting," Cale told them.

"That's a lot of people! How many tanks are they expecting to field?" Angela asked.

"Eight tanks all-told," Cale answered.

"Will that be enough?" Angela asked.

"It will have to be Angela," Willow said, almost forcefully.

A few days later, on Friday, found the group of friends interested in tankery sitting in the one shared class that they had, World History. As the teacher was outlining the syllabus for the upcoming year, the school's broadcast system chimed, calling for the attention of the whole high school.

"Attention, will Willow Gonzalez and Lea Schultz please report to the Student President's office. I say again, will Willow Gonzalez and Lea Schultz please report to the Student President's office, that is all."

The teacher paused and looked over at the assembled class. "Well, I think the two of you had better hurry, it sounds important," he told the two students that were called.

"Yes sir," Willow said as she and Lea stood up and left the class, leaving their friends to wonder what was going on.

As the two women, almost polar opposites in attitude, walked down the hallway, Lea looked up at her more serious friend.

"So any idea why they would call us?" she asked.

"If I had to guess, it might be about tankery, but other than that, I wouldn't know, unless you've done something lately to upset them...again...," Willow answered.

"Ahhh come on Willow, that's not cool!" Lea whined as she danced around to walk backwards in front of her friend. "I haven't done anything lately!"

"Wasn't it you who was bragging the other day about painting all those symbols and crap that were covering the statue of the founder of our school?" Willow prodded her.

"Hey now, keep your voice down!" Lea said, glancing around sharply. "Nobody knows about that!"

"Nobody knows about what Ms. Schultz?" Elisabeth Mayhew asked suddenly from behind Lea.

Lea stiffened, almost causing Willow to run into her if she hadn't seen the vice president behind Lea. Lea slowly turned around, trying to hide how nervous she really was.

"Ummm nothing important Ms. Vice President," Lea said quickly.

"Well its good that you two have gotten here so fast. Come inside, there is much that needs discussing," Elisabeth said as she opened the door to the Student Council's office.

As they followed her into the office, Lea was very nervous, hoping that Willow's comment hadn't been overheard. Willow, on the other hand, was cool and calm as they walked in, ready to take on whatever was thrown at her, just like she had in junior high school when she had led her friends from victory to victory in their mock battles against other students.

Inside the office, off to one side, sat a couch where Mary and Anna sat casually, chatting between themselves quietly as they were looking over some papers. At the far end of the office, Willow and Lea saw a rather large desk. Elisabeth moved around the desk to stand behind and to the right side of Amy, who sat in a large, comfortable office chair, her elbows on the desk top, with her hands in front of her face and her fingers interlaced, the light from above her glinting off her glasses, hiding her eyes.

"Whoa, Gendo Ikari much?" Lea whispered to Willow, causing her friend to elbow her lightly.

"Thank you for coming so quickly ladies," Amy said seriously.

"Like we could refuse," Lea muttered while Willow cleared her throat and looked the President directly into the eyes.

"What is it that you need from us, President McKay?" she asked.

"Well we finally have received enough volunteers to man the tanks that we have been generously given by a benefactor of the school, and we want you, Willow, to lead the team," Amy answered.

Willow blinked, not expecting that, then looked down at Lea standing next to her, then back up at the President. "Then why is Lea here with me?"

Amy looked back over her shoulder at Elisabeth, who cleared her throat and answered for her.

"We feel that Lea should be your vice-captain, as it would be a good way for her to curb her more...impetuous...adventures if she were given some responsibility. Additionally we know that she is a skilled tank commander from her middle school days," Elisabeth told them.

Lea stood stunned, while she had commanded a tank in middle school, she had never been anything higher than that. "Ummm… I don't know what to say…," Lea trailed off, uncertain how to take what she was told.

"We have faith in you Lea, you're one of our better options for the situation we are in," Amy told her.

"Situation?" Willow asked, not liking where this was going.

"Yes. We are being allowed to join in the Japanese School Ship Tankery Tournament this year as it's the only school district that isn't in the middle of their tournament or whose tournament is complete," Elisabeth explained.

"Somehow I think there are a whole lot of conditions with this situation," Willow said wryly, causing Lea to grimace in agreement.

The members of the Student Council looked at each other, and the President nodded to them. "You're right Willow, there are a few conditions to us being allowed to enter in the Japanese Tournament. There are also some conditions in us being able to form a tankery team as well," She informed the pair.

"Oh come ON! That is SO not fair! Why do we have to have conditions in order to do something like this?!" Lea ranted, obviously pissed at them.

"Because that is the way of life, and what we had to do in order to have a tankery team this year," Amy answered coldly.

"Lea please! Let the President at least tell you what the conditions are first!" Mary pleaded from the couch.

Lea was about to snap out a response angrily when Willow put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her cold. She glanced up at her taller friend to see her shake her head slightly. Willow then looked up at the President and raised an eyebrow.

"What are the conditions that we have to abide by in order for us to play?" Willow asked them.

Elisabeth stepped forward and cleared her throat. "The biggest condition is that we have to have a female Captain and Vice-Captain for political reasons. The Japanese schools only allow tankery for girls, and to keep them from having too large of an issue, we have to have girls as the overall leaders. The second condition from the Japanese is that we have to team up with last year's champion of their tournament. They will have only a couple of tanks more than us, and we'll have to be going up against opponents who will have far more skill and tanks than both teams combined," She told them.

"Man that's going to suck," Lea muttered.

"Why do I have a feeling that those are not the only conditions to be placed upon us," Willow said wryly, prying for more information.

"Because they aren't," Amy told them. "Our benefactor has conditions of his own. The first of which is that we have to use the tanks that he provides only, not any other tanks. The second is that we shall wear the uniforms of the Australian Royal Army from World War Two, to include a rank structure and everything. His third condition is that all members of the tankery team will be entered into the Australian Royal Army as reserve members for as long as they are in tankery, and upon graduation from either High School or College, shall enter the Royal Army active duty service as tankers."

"Wait a minute! We have to join the military in order to be in tankery?!" Lea exclaimed.

"Yes but only for three years after you leave school," Elisabeth told them.

"Do we have a choice in this matter?" Willow asked.

"None," Amy answered. "However, as reservists, you will be given a monthly paycheck, and our benefactor has arranged for a Sydney reserve unit to provide us with logistical and maintenance support. We will be having a full maintenance team as well as a logistical team arriving within the week."

"How often will we have to wear the uniform?" Willow asked as Lea started to look intrigued.

"The uniform will become your new school uniform. Also, our benefactor has informed us that your ranks will be official, and not honorary. Your team, along with the maintenance and logistical support personnel will be an official Reserve company, with you as its company commander, Willow. You will be responsible for learning how to lead them, along with military regulations and other requirements. On the plus side, you will have support from an actual reserve officer who will be arriving to help teach you, and the other officers, how to be Queen's officers in the Royal Army. Also there will be a senior noncommissioned officer who will be coming to teach whoever you assign to be a noncommissioned officer as well. Our benefactor wants your team to be very well prepared to face anything that you might encounter while in Japan, and wants to show the world just how good the first Australian tankery team in almost twenty years can be," Amy told them.

"Who is our benefactor?" Lea asked with narrowed eyes.

"Unfortunately I do not know who our benefactor is, just that all these conditions from him have come through the Minister of Education, and have been signed off by the Minister of Defense," Elisabeth said to them.

Lea and Willow looked at each other, silently communicating with each other, before they turned back to face the Student Council.

"Well I guess we don't have much of a choice, do we?" Willow asked.

"No I guess we don't. For what it's worth, I'm sorry that these conditions are in place," Amy said contritely.

"So, when are we getting our tanks?" Lea asked, starting to get excited, wanting to see what they would have available.

"They are actually already here and in the garage. We were given more than we knew we could initially field, but the ones that were chosen to be fielded first, again in accordance with our benefactor, are ready and in the main garage, the rest are in the secondary garages behind the main garage," Amy said.

"So why are we being told to field specific tanks first? Why not field the maximum amount that we could field possible to give us a better chance at overwhelming our enemies?" Willow asked, curious as to why things were working out this way.

"It's easier to show you the tanks chosen for initial fielding than to try to explain the choices to you," Amy said as she stood up. "Oh before we head down there, here is a list of everyone who volunteered for the tankery team. Please look it over as we walk to the garage, and let us know who you're wanting to be the commanders of the other tanks when we get there, that way we can get them to the garage," She said as she handed a printout to Willow and Lea to read over. The printout was a list of names and skills of everyone that had volunteered for the team. Right off the top it included the names of all their friends who had wanted to do tankery with them.

As the six girls walked down the hall towards the garages, they looked over the list of people carefully.

"Hey David, Nicholas, Cale, Angela, Dawn and Shawn all signed up!" Lea said excitedly.

"Sounds like the perfect people to put in charge of tanks then," Willow said to her.

"Hey Pres, how many tanks are we having to initially field?" Lea asked irreverently.

"There are eight tanks that we need to field at first. If we get more volunteers, I think we can field more," Amy responded, though next to her Elisabeth stiffened at the disrespect that Lea was showing.

"Oh, okay, thanks," Lea said back as she continued to read through the list of people.

The two continued to discuss how they were going to lay out their new 'company' between them, picking out who would be the leaders and the tank commanders and their ranks. When they arrived at the tankery garage area, they could see the chain-linked, fenced-in area had five garages in total and a huge concrete open area for them to drive the tanks around. When they came to the gate, the President pulled out a key and unlocked it, opening the gate. She then led the group towards the largest of the five garage buildings.

"Wow, this is a lot of space!" Lea commented as they approached the large brick buildings.

"Yeah it is. This school had quite the tankery team at its height. They could have fielded almost fifty or sixty tanks all told. Back then not only was our tankery team so large, and one of the best, but we, the students, did all the maintenance, provided our own logistical support and personnel and everything," Anna commented. "I've still got all the treasury reports from that time, some twenty or thirty year's worth of reports. It was very enlightening as to how difficult it can be to operate a tankery team of large size."

"So how many tanks all told do we have now?" Willow asked.

"That's just the thing, our benefactor gave us eight right now, but has promised so many more shortly, even though he doesn't expect, nor require, that we man them immediately. In fact, his words as to why he is giving us so many tanks was, 'Just in case.' At least that's what the Minister told us," Mary answered cheerfully.

"Very interesting," Willow commented as they came up to the largest of the five garage buildings. "Well, let's see what this mysterious benefactor has given us."

As Amy pulled out a different key and unlocked the personnel door in the big garage door, Lea was literally vibrating with excitement to see the new tanks. The last tank she had been in had been an old Panzer III, and she was hoping that they would be receiving something a bit heavier, maybe even a Panzer IV. When the door was fully open, and the light spilled into the darkened garage, the forms of eight different tanks could barely be seen. The six girls entered the building and Elisabeth reached over and turned on the overhead lights, being the closest to the switch. As the lights came on fully, Willow and Lea gasped at the tanks they saw before them.

In line from the heaviest to the lightest, eight tanks sat there, camouflaged for forest or jungle operations. The first one was the super heavy Maus tank, which they had seen in Japan's tournament last year, and the ingenious way it had been defeated. Beside it was the heavy KV-4 break through tank, after that the famed Russian IS tank. The fourth tank was the rumored and rare British TOG II tank. Further down the line was a T-34-85, followed by a German Panther tank, and a very rare Chinese Type 59. The last tank was one that had been rumored to exist but had never been proven, until now, the ultra rare Russian BT-SV light tank.

"Wow….," Lea said almost too softly to hear as she stared at the line of tanks.

Willow just stood there stunned for a second, before shaking herself a bit and looked over to the President. "Can you arrange for Nicholas Hurst, David Sanders, Cale Schmidt, Angela Campos, Shawn Meads and Dawn Volking to be summoned here? Also, how do we get keys for this facility?" She asked slowly, her brain slowly adapting to what she was seeing.

"We can do that," Mary said with a light smile as she moved off to summon the requested people to the garage.

"Once you've finished talking to them and have determined who will be on what vehicle, come see me, we have enough spare keys made for all of your tank commanders to have one to both the outside fence and this building," Amy told her.

"What about the other buildings? I noticed there are more buildings on this facility than just the garages." Willow said.

"There are, and we'll talk about those later," Amy responded as she turned to leave. "We'll see you in a couple of hours Captain Gonzalez."

The rest of the friends were sitting in World History, the teacher having finished several minutes ago, but class still had another twenty minutes left.

"So, why do you think they were summoned?" David asked his group of friends.

"No clue, but it sounded urgent," Dawn said worriedly.

"I wouldn't worry about it, it's probably nothing terrible," Cale countered.

Before anything else could be said by the rest of the group, the school intercom crackled again, drawing the attention of the whole class once more.

"Will Nicholas Hurst, David Sanders, Cale Schmidt, Angela Campos, Shawn Meads and Dawn Volking please report to the Tankery Facility. I repeat will Nicholas Hurst, David Sanders, Cale Schmidt, Angela Campos, Shawn Meads and Dawn Volking please report to the Tankery Facility immediately. That is all," Mary's voice said over the intercom.

The group of friends looked at each other in wonder then all looked over to their teacher. The teacher looked up at them and waved them out. "Get going, sounds like you're needed now. Good luck to you," he said before he turned back to his reading.

The group picked up their things and left the class and started to head out to the facility. After several minutes of walking, as the Tankery Facility was on the opposite end of the campus from the classrooms, they had arrived to find the gate at the fenced in area open. They walked in and headed for the building where they could see the door open. David was the first one to enter the building and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the tanks lined up inside, shocked at the amount of heavy metal sitting before him. Because of his sudden stop, behind him Nicholas almost completely ran over his friend, barely stopping in time before he plowed into him.

"Hey Dave, why the hell did you stop?" he asked sharply.

"TANKS!" David cried out excitedly as he pointed at the line of tanks. He then suddenly broke into a run, and ran straight for the KV-4. "WOW! I didn't think that this tank had even been made!"

The rest of the group slowly entered into the building and each one made an exclamation of surprise at seeing the quality of tanks that were there.

"Hey everyone!" They heard Willow's voice. They glanced around and saw Willow sitting on top of the turret of the IS waving at them. Looking around they found Lea perched on top of the Maus, cheerfully kicking her feet back and forth over the side of the turret.

"Are these our tanks?" Angela asked in shock.

"Yup!" Lea said cheerfully.

"Lets gather around David and the tank he seems to be in love with," Willow said as she and Lea climbed down off of the tanks they were on.

As the group came up to where David was going over the tank from the ground up, Willow walked up and smacked David in the back of the head.

"Hey tread-head, pay attention!" she scolded.

David ducked as he was hit and looked back at the group, who looked at him with amusement.

"Sorry, I haven't been around a tank for a while and got a little over excited," he said apologetically.

"A little?!" Lea snickered at him.

Willow cleared her throat before any argument could be started, dragging their attention to her.

"All right everyone, Lea and I have a lot of information to tell you. Seems that while we are all on the tankery team, there are a few conditions. One is that these are the tanks we have to use. Another is that I am the commander, and Lea is my executive officer. I know those are military phrases, but that is another condition. As of this minute, we are now all reserve personnel in the Royal Australian Army until further notice. I will be the company commander, with a rank of Captain. Lea is the XO with the rank of Lieutenant. Dawn will be the platoon leader of 1st platoon, with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. 1st platoon will have every tank but mine, Lea's and David's tanks in it. David will be the company sergeant major. The rest of you will have the rank of Staff Sergeant and will be in command of the different tanks," Willow told them.

Everyone looked at each other, surprise written all over their faces before as one they turned to look at Willow.

"Willow, did you just say that we are in the Army now?" Angela asked slowly.

"How the heck did that happen? Can we even be enlisted or commissioned without our written consent?" Nicholas asked in shock while everyone else nodded in agreement.

"Two things. One, are we going to have to act like we're in the Army? Two, did you know that _none_ of these tanks look like how the originals were supposed to look?" David asked.

"Ummmm, to answer in order, yes we are. As to how it happened, I don't know yet, only that it was probably done by our mysterious benefactor somehow. If I had to guess, that it is the benefactor, I would say that he or she has some seriously high government contacts in order to arrange all of this. And considering they communicate _through_ the Minister of Education, I think that is a safe assumption at this time. Yes, David we will have to act like we're in the Army, and I have been told we will be paid as if we are in the Army. We'll be receiving a support group within a week or two, which will include our uniforms, which will now become our school uniforms, though I'm sure we can wear normal clothes when we aren't in school or actively doing tankery business. As to the second, how the hell can you tell that?" she responded.

"Easy! The KV-4 does not come with a 130mm gun. The IS looks like it's been uparmored. The Maus' exhaust doesn't look right for the engine it's supposed to have. Heck that TOG doesn't look like it's supposed to from the pictures I've seen before! It wouldn't surprise me if the others are similarly modified in some way, shape or form," David answered.

"So it will be a five tank platoon?" Dawn asked, trying to move the conversation back to details and away from David's enthusiasm.

"Yes, and while I know that is break from the traditional four tank formation, we just don't have enough tanks and crews right now to form up in the proper method," Willow answered.

"So who is getting what tank?" asked the normally quiet Shawn.

"I'll start with the command team, then work my way down. I will be in the IS. Lea is going to ride in the Maus, David will be taking the KV-4. Dawn you'll be in the Panther, Angela will be your platoon sergeant and will ride in the TOG II. Shawn, you and Nicholas will form a scouting element, you'll be in the Type 59 and Nicholas will have the BT-SV. Cale you're our communications link and will ride in the T-34-85," Willow directed.

"A Panther eh? Rawr," Dawn said with a playful wink at Angela, who shook her head at her friend's antics.

"Well then, that aside, we've got to prepare to meet the rest of the team. That will be happening tomorrow. Also, we're to come up with a nickname for our Company, as we'll be an official unit formation for the Reserves. I recommend we wait for the adult soldiers to get here before deciding that so that they have input as well. Also, the Army will be sending instructors to us so that those of us in noncommissioned and commissioned officer positions can be taught how to do our jobs within the Army," Willow informed them. "So everyone, start becoming familiar with your tanks, it's going to be a long month before we're to link up with our counterparts in Japan."

TO BE CONTINUED


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The More Things Change

"Hello" – Talking  
'What' – Thinking  
 _Ugh_ – Emphasis  
 **Hello -** Typing in chat

Disclaimer: I do not own Girls und Panzers, if I did, I wouldn't be sitting here counting pennies every time I go to buy something.

Miho stood before the gathered members of the Oorai tankery team. They had just finished a good practice. She had yet to tell them the news. This year's tournament would be different, and the rest of the Anglerfish team hadn't said anything either, trying to give some time for Yukari to dig for information. The whole team looked up to her and it made her nervous that she was about to tell them something that was probably earth-shattering.

"Great practice everyone," Miho said, looking back and forth at the gathered team. Most of the ones that went with her to the championship were there. There were a few new additions - a whole new Turtle team and a couple of new members in both the Anteater and Leopon teams. "I do have one announcement for everyone. As you know, we were summoned to speak to the Minster of Education last week. The result of that meeting is that while our school will still be open, we are still in a delicate situation. This year's tournament will be a lot harder than last year's, as all the smaller schools are being teamed-up with each other to compete, allowing the larger schools to put more tanks onto the field," she said glancing at everyone, hoping that they all understood what was being said.

"Who are we being teamed with, Commander?" Erwin, the history-buff commander of Hippo team, asked.

"I bet it's with BC Freedom," Azusa, the commander of Rabbit team, said excitedly.

"Actually, we won't be teamed up with any of the schools here in Japan," Miho said slowly.

"EH?!" the whole team exclaimed, shocked at the fact that they weren't teamed up with any of the teams in Japan.

"So who are we being teamed with then?" Noriko, the commander of Duck team, asked pointedly.

"We are being teamed up with Levinta High School, from Australia. Yukari is trying to get us information on what kind of a team they have, but we haven't found out anything yet," Miho answered.

"Levinta High School? They have a tankery team?" Erwin asked sharply, surprise evident in her voice.

"Levinta High School was similar to our school. They haven't had a tankery team in over ten years. While their school isn't at threat of being shut down, for some reason their Ministry of Education has decided to get back into tankery. Levinta is the _only_ school ship for Australia, and unlike most of the Japanese school ships, much less the world, they have middle school, high school _and_ college all on board the one ship," Yukari informed everyone.

"Have you been able to find out any other information Yukari-san?" Noriko asked.

"Unfortunately no, I have not. It is difficult to get information on them in my usual fashion due to them being somewhere in the South Pacific, rather than up here near Japan," Yukari answered.

"I may have some information about them," Nekota said slowly.

"Please, any information that you may have will be helpful," Miho said, excitement creeping into her voice.

"Well, as I told you when I first joined, I play an online tank game, and one of the other players that I occasionally team up with was talking about Levinta High School. They said they were so proud that the school is starting tankery back up after receiving the gift that they had given to them. I asked them what they meant, and they said to me after the match that they had gifted eight tanks to the school. Half of them are heavy tanks, the rest are three mediums and one light tank," Nekota answered.

"Did this person happen to say what model tanks they gave to Levinta?" Miho asked, her mind starting to think of possibilities.

"Unfortunately no they did not. As we kept talking I mentioned that I was in tankery and which school I was in. They seemed very intrigued with that knowledge and mentioned that they might have to see about arranging something for such a prestigious tankery school that had fallen on hard times like we had," Nekota continued.

"Wonder what they meant by that," Mako murmured.

"Four heavy tanks? That will mean more armor, but they'll be slow, and not very maneuverable unless they're all Tiger Porsche, which I doubt. But I wonder what they have. This is not going to be easy," Miho said softly.

"I'm sorry I don't have more information," Nekota said sadly.

"No, no it's okay!" Yukari said quickly, hoping to cheer her up. "Just the information that you gave us now is a huge start for me, and it lets me look into things a bit more."

"All right everyone, that's it for today. Let's break and I'll see you all tomorrow for practice," Miho said.

"Thank you for the practice," everyone said loudly as they bowed to Miho before the team broke up and headed for home. Anglerfish team stayed behind and gathered around their commander, each girl looking at each other before focusing on Miho.

"Nishizumi-dono, I've got a friend who is pretty skilled at acquiring data via the internet, do you want me to ask them for help?" Yukari asked slowly.

"I can ask some of the people that my mother knows as well, they might know something about the school, even if they don't know anything about the team we'll be working with," Hana said.

"Thank you, both of you, that would be much appreciated. Yukari, don't do anything illegal though, I don't want you getting into trouble. I'll also contact my sister and see if she has any contacts that might have some information as well," Miho told them.

"I'll see if the amateur radio net has anything I can get," Saori commented.

"Thank you, all of you. How about we have a strategy meeting prior to practice tomorrow, that way we could go over a few plans on how to approach Levinta's team. I have this sinking feeling that integrating with them is not going to be easy," Miho said with a lopsided smile.

Yukari walked into her home, saying hi to her parents as she headed up the stairs to her room. Once she was inside her room she quickly changed out of her school uniform into her street clothes, then dug out her laptop. As she waited for it to boot up completely she grinned to herself.

'Nishizumi-dono asked me to find out about Levinta. If it weren't for the fact that it's still down in Australian waters, it would be too easy to get the intelligence she needs. Thank the spirits that Nekota had that information. I'll just contact my friend and see what he can find out,' she thought as her computer finally finished booting up and connecting to the internet.

As her preferred chat program came up and logged her in, she started to think about how she would phrase her request. 'I that he was online right now, but it's hit and miss with him. I met him a couple of years ago, and while I was already a huge fan of tanks, he had sparked in me a desire to not only know about tanks, but to also study how they were built, the specifications of the various types actively used in tankery around the world, as well as some of the experimental tanks that had never made it off the drawing board, but that nobody wanted to try to use in tankery.'

As she scanned through her contact list, she saw several of her fellow tread-heads online. She ignored them as she kept scrolling down till she saw a name that said 'The Chief'. She grinned as she saw that he was online.

 **Hey Chief, I have a question for you.** She typed to him.

 **What's up Yu-chan?** He asked her.

 **My team is supposed to be paired up with Levinta High School in the upcoming tournament, but we have no information on them aside from they're new, and have 4 heavy tanks, 3 medium tanks, and 1 light tank. Do you have any other information that you can help me get?** She asked.

 **What kind of information do you want or need Yu-chan? I'm sure I can get something for my young student. By the way, how is your first project coming along?** He responded.

 **Model of tanks that they have, commander and vice-commander of the team. How skilled they all are as a team and individually. And my first project is coming along okay; it's not easy modifying a Panzerkampfwagen IV Ausf. H that is constantly being used, especially in a fashion that is unnoticeable by the crew and the tankery officials. I think I'm about 60% complete right now. I wish that I had some technical help though to make it go faster, or that you were available to teach me directly in person.** She told him.

 **Model of tanks I probably won't be able to get you any time soon, but I can give you the commander and vice-commander's names. How skilled they are as a team and individually I'll have to look into. Maybe someday we'll be able to meet in person and I'll truly be able to teach you like you deserve my young apprentice. Now then, the commander is one Willow Gonzalez, and the vice-commander is one Lea Schultz.** He told her.

 **Thanks Chief! I'll run that information and see what I can pull from other sources. Do you have any guidance on how I can modify the main gun? I've already melded that metal with the barrel, it was amazing to watch how that material you told me about just melts into metal, but you never did tell me what exactly it does besides increase the strength of the material it bonds with by a factor of 30.** She said.

 **All will be revealed in the fullness of time Yu-chan that I promise you. Unfortunately, without seeing the gun itself, I can't help you more. Take some pictures of the barrel, rifling, and breech and send them to me and I'll see what I can come up with. Now then, I have to get off, work calls and there is much that I have to do, not including my own side projects.** He said.

 **All right, thanks for the help Chief and I look forward to talking to you later.** She said before he logged off.

Yukari sat there in thought. 'Part of me is happy that I could get more information about our soon to be partners, and by having the names, I should be able get even more information that I can give to Nishizumi-dono tomorrow. The other part of me was very worried that my little modifications to the team's beloved panzer would be discovered before they were finished, and I'm to stop my actions.'

'Well, nothing I can really do about any of that right now. Might as well start trying to dig up more information about our allies,' she thought before turning her attention back to her computer. She brought up a web browser and started typing away.

The members of Anglerfish team gathered in front of their tank prior to practice. Yukari, Saori and Hana each had some papers in hand as everyone sat on top of the tank around the turret.

"So what were you able to find?" Miho asked the other three.

The three looked at each other and after a nod, Hana spoke up first.

"I was able to contact some people that do flower arranging aboard the Levinta. From what I was able to find out, two of the members are a Dawn Volking, who appears to have some skill as a tank commander, better than Erwin is right now. The other was Angela Campos, also a tank commander. Angela, from what I was told, is someone who is calm and collected regardless of the situation, and seems to be able to defuse any volatile situation that she has encountered," Hana informed them.

"I was able to actually get in contact with one of the members of the team. One of their radio operators, a Crystal King, has her license as well. She was only able or willing, to tell me about one other member who happens to be a friend of hers. A Robin Macias, who is the gunner for Ms. Campos evidently. Crystal wasn't too forth coming about what kind of a person that Robin is, just that we'd be hard pressed to find a better gunner, and that her team only had one other gunner who was better than Robin at long range sniping. I'm sorry I couldn't get more information," Saori said.

"It's okay Saori, that was very good information. Hana, thank you so much, it's good to know more about a couple of the tank commanders," Miho said to the two, then looked over to Yukari expectantly.

"I was able to get a bit more information from my contact, and I have the promise of more in a few days. The first is that the commander and vice-commander are Willow Gonzalez and Lea Schultz. Willow is definitely an 'Alpha' personality, and from everything in the record I was able to acquire, she was an obvious choice for a school that is just restarting its tankery program. Lea's file is as checkered as a soldier who has seen the same rank six times in five years. Her only saving grace from what I can see is that she doesn't know how to quit. Depending on the tank they gave her, she could be a serious asset. Unfortunately my contact is not going to be able to get me the information about what specific model tanks they have prior to us meeting them, but he is going to be able to get us the information about how skilled the teams are, as well as the team names," Yukari reported as she handed the information directly to Miho.

Miho took that papers and smiled softly at her friends. "Good work Yukari, I know you'll get more information for us as quickly as you can," she said to her before she turned to face everyone else. "All right, now that we have some information, let's make some plans before everyone does arrive. I think I've got an idea about how we can initially approach them when we meet, but I'm always open to what all of you think."

Over the three weeks since the initial intelligence on their ally was received, the girls of Oorai continued to practice and prepare for the upcoming tournament. They had received more intelligence that was pleasantly surprising. The Chief had come through with more information, specifically about how the Levinta team worked together as a team, and how they worked individually. The information that they had received told them that the team they had been saddled with was pretty damn good. Good enough that Miho doubted that she would have been able to beat them if they went by the raw numbers alone.

Everyone was nervous about the meeting with their ally that they would have after this upcoming weekend. On Monday morning, they were scheduled to conduct maneuvers with Levinta, and then break for lunch before they sat down together to plan for the upcoming tournament. Miho was very nervous about meeting them, because she was afraid that her team wouldn't meet the level of capability of the other team.

As the team left for the weekend, Miho sighed and walked home slowly, going over everything that they had found out. The only tanks that they had been able to find out about were two of the mediums and the light tank. While she was familiar with the Panther, and the T-34-85, she didn't know much about this BT-SV. It was evidently a Russian design, but Pravda, the local Russian themed school ship, didn't have any of the light weight tanks in their lineup.

As the weekend passed by the team, each girl relaxed and prepared for the upcoming tournament. On Sunday, as Oorai was docked in its home port, the team gathered ashore to enjoy some shopping, something to be enjoyed with how rare it was that the self sufficient ship docked. The whole team had just stepped out of the mall when they saw a school ship, almost twice the size of theirs, docking next to them. Behind the bow, in bold red letters, it said HMAS LEVINTA, and on the conning tower it said CVSS-02.

"Wow that ship is bigger than almost anything Japan has!" Yukari exclaimed as they stared up at the ship.

"They must have a lot of money, like Saunders does," Azusa said in awe.

"They are Australia's only school ship," Mako said casually.

"And they only have eight tanks?!" Erwin exclaimed.

"I think I see some movement!" Saori cried as she pointed out. Everyone looked to where she was pointing and sure enough they could see movement. From the distance, they could see what appeared to be the turrets of the tanks.

"I think I recognize a Panther, and the T-34-85, and maybe an IS, but that's about it," Miho commented as they watched the tanks move.

"I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to be interesting Nishizumi-dono," Yukari said speculatively.

"Very interesting, Yukari-chan, very interesting," Miho agreed.

TO BE CONTINUED


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

New Allies

"Hello" – Talking  
'What' – Thinkingd  
 _Ugh_ – Emphasis  
 **Hello -** Typing in chat

Disclaimer: I do not own Girls und Panzers, if I did, I wouldn't be sitting here counting pennies every time I go to buy something.

As Levinta pulled into port next to Ooarai, the Levinta tankery team stood in formation alongside their adult members. Off to the side stood David, dressed in the khaki working uniform of a World War Two Royal Australian Army Sergeant Major. At his side stood the Sergeant Major of the adult contingent of their reserve unit, Sergeant Major Bruce Michaelson. In front of the large formation stood Willow, in a similar uniform, and next to her stood Mary Duba, the captain of the adult group and Willow's primary instructor.

"Good job today everyone," Willow started, "you have all come a long way in the last month. Most of that is because of your hard work and dedication to our unit and school, but also because of the tireless efforts of our more senior personnel."

Willow smiled at everyone and glanced around the formation, having come to know everyone standing there, from their youngest to the oldest soldier.

"Tomorrow we will be having our first battle with someone other than each other or the simulators. I was warned just a few minutes ago that none of the Japanese schools, whom we will be fighting against or with, have been told that we have male members. Because of this, the traditional pre-battle meeting will only have me, Lieutenant Schultz, Lieutenant Volking and Captain Duba," Willow informed them. "Our first opponent will not be Ooarai Girl's Academy, as we had originally assumed, but instead it will be us and Ooarai against Saint Gloriana's Girls Academy. We will disembark in a few hours, so I will dismiss you all shortly."

At her words, everyone started to whisper softly, excited at the idea of being on dry land again for the first time in over a month.

"All of you are to be on your best behavior, remember that we are guests here and we represent Australia and the Queen. Do not bring dishonor on our name or on the Queen's name," Willow instructed them.

As she said this everyone went very quiet, the younger members looked very serious at finding out that if they screwed up it would affect far more than just themselves, while the older members nodded internally, used to thinking in these terms as many had been deployed to foreign countries before.

"Company! Attention!" Willow barked out at parade ground volume, causing the company to snap to attention. "Sergeant Major!"

"Ma'am!" David moved rapidly to stand in front of Willow, snapping off a salute as he came to attention before her.

"The Company is yours, release them to prepare for action," Willow instructed.

"Roger Ma'am!" David responded as Willow returned the salute, then moved off. David waited until she had cleared away from the front of the company before turning around to face them.

"All right everyone, civilian clothes are authorized when you aren't working on the tanks. The battle will be in standard full battle dress. Full operational security regulations are in play until further notice," David told the gathered company, with Sergeant Major Michaelson nodding in agreement from his side. "Once we disembark and have the tanks parked in their locations ashore, everyone on is pass until the battle. Next hit time is 1500 hours local, right here," David glanced back and forth briefly, catching the eyes of the various high school students. "Dismissed!"

Everyone broke ranks and started talking to each other as they walked off, mostly about what they were going to do on dry land and what kind of shopping and entertainment might be available. David moved over to join Willow, who had linked up with Lea and Dawn. As he came up to them, he smiled softly at all three.

"Ladies," he said with a respectful nod to them.

"David, do you have any intelligence about either of the schools we'll be seeing tomorrow?" Lea asked as she stood there in her version of their uniform, the shirt showing off her midriff and her ample cleavage, her shorts cut low, hinting at her hot pink underwear, while the legs barely came down her thighs at all, with frilly socks poking out of the top of her combat boots.

"I do Ma'am," David answered formally as he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. 'WHY does she have to tease us like this?!' he thought as he, once again, restrained his young instincts.

"Go ahead and relax David, we're officially off duty now, as far as I'm concerned," Willow informed him as she saw his sideways glance at Lea. 'I really need to have a serious talk with her about her clothing. I can't have it distracting our people, especially if we're going into serious battle!' she thought, trying not to glare at Lea.

"Okay, Willow. St. Gloriana's Girls Academy is an all-girls school modeled after the United Kingdom. They predominately have British tanks. When they faced Ooarai last year, they fielded one Churchill Mark VII and four Matilda Mark II tanks. All five tanks are fairly well-armored, but the only tank we have that would need to worry about one hit kills would be the BT-SV. However, my sources say that they have several other tank models, including the famed AT15 tank destroyer. From the front, even our heavy tanks will have issues damaging that thing!" David started.

"Good to know that our first match won't be a pushover," Dawn said thoughtfully, interrupting David, causing him to glare at her lightly.

"What about our soon-to-be partners in this fiasco, David?" Willow asked, trying to stave off any budding fight from happening.

David took a deep breath and nodded to Willow in thanks for her question as he refocused his thoughts. "Well, from what I have been able to determine so far, Ooarai hasn't added any new tanks to its team yet, but they have been able to completely fill out all the crews for the tanks they do have, as well as find a replacement crew for the Hetzer, now that its original team has graduated," David answered.

"I'm really not happy with the fact that we can't have you with us at the planning session this afternoon, David, your input has always been helpful," Dawn complained, a frown creasing her face.

"Decision made at a higher level than us, Dawn," David replied flippantly. "Besides, someone needs to ride herd on our group or we might have an international incident by dinner!"

"Yeah, let's NOT let that happen please!" Willow said with feeling before she clapped her hand on David's shoulder. "Please make sure our tanks get off the ship in one piece, David."

"Of course! I'll make sure that your equipment is put into your temporary quarters as well Willow," David replied, giving a mock look of hurt that she would assume he wouldn't do that.

"Hahaha! Thank you my friend, I know I can always rely on you to make sure I'm taken care of. Don't forget to take care of yourself," She said softly to him. "Well, we're off to get ready for the strategy meeting, we'll see you tonight at our barracks, David," Willow said before she started to leave, motioning for the other two to follow her.

"Later David," Dawn said as she gave her friend a brief hug before she followed after Willow.

Lea sauntered up to David and leaned in close to him. "If you can make sure my gear gets into my room as well, I'll reimburse you, David," she whispered into his ear, her voice husky.

David swallowed and glanced over at her. "I think I can make that happen, Lea," he said slowly.

"Thanks hun," she said softly and kissed him on the cheek. "Have fun moving the tanks and see ya tonight big boy."

An hour later, Willow, Dawn and Lea came ashore and started heading for the address that they had been given as the location of the meeting. Willow was casually dressed in a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt emblazoned on the chest with the school crest and the words 'Levinta High School's 501st Tank Regiment' around it. Dawn wore leggings underneath a long, dark brown skirt, along with a black, racerback tank top and a dark green soft button up over-shirt that she kept unbuttoned. Lea was dressed the most daringly, a fact that caused Willow's eyebrow to twitch several times every time she glanced at her executive officer. Lea was dressed in jean shorts that barely went past her young posterior, and were hung low enough to expose the straps of her hot-pink thong. Her top was nothing more than a light tan, button up shirt that she had tied underneath her ample breasts and unbuttoned so as to expose the maximum amount of cleavage and her stomach for all to see, yet hide enough of her breasts to not be considered illegal.

As they walked through Ooarai, the three girls looked around at the various shops that were close to the port. Willow twitched a little bit at the attention that was being directed at them by the citizens of Ooarai, even though most of it was actually directed at the scandalously-dressed Lea.

"Hey they have an outlet store here! Any chance we could visit it while we're here Willow?" Dawn asked her friend with a grin.

"Yeah, that's not a bad idea, we might be able to get a certain someone some proper clothes," Willow said with a mild growl.

"So, what kind of building are we supposed to be looking for?" Lea asked as she kept glancing around, winking suggestively at a few older men as she scanned the area around them.

"Should be a small office building that has been reserved for us and Ooarai to use as a company headquarters building," Willow responded disdainfully.

"We're here until the end of the tournament right?" Dawn asked.

"Yeah, we'll be nominally deployed here until the end of the tournament. After that, depending on what happens, we'll see if we're here longer," Willow answered.

"Hmmm if that's the case, I'll see about moving the admin into that building and see if we can't arrange to fully take it over for now. I wonder if there is an embassy here," Lea said thoughtfully.

As they neared the address they had been given, the buildings around them changed from stores and restaurants to hotels and office buildings.

"Hmm seems like this part of town has been upgraded recently. I wonder where they got the money for that from," Lea commented casually, and smirked when she noticed a man walk into a power pole as he had been watching her walk instead of where he was going.

"Probably from the increased tourism revenue due to Ooarai winning the national tournament last year," Dawn mused.

They arrived at the address; it was a two-story office building with a sign out front declaring it to be part of the conference center complex that was a block away.

"So this is the building where the meeting is being held, eh? Not too shabby," Dawn said cheerfully.

"It's also the building where we shall be operating out of until further notice," Willow told them.

"After the meeting, I'll get in contact with Sergeant Major Michaelson about getting some people here to occupy the building," Lea said as she glanced around the building.

As they entered the building, they saw a young woman sitting at the reception desk wearing what appeared to be the uniform of the conference center.

"Welcome to the Panzer Conference Center, Panther Annex, can I help you young ladies?" She asked them politely.

"We're the team captains from Levinta High School, we're here to meet up with the team captains for Ooarai," Willow answered her simply.

The woman glanced at all three and what they were wearing, and then back up at Willow's face. "Second floor, fourth room on the right," she told them in a bored tone of voice and went back to reading the book that was on the desk under the counter.

As the three went past the receptionist and up the stairs, Lea shook her head in disgust.

"Really lax security," Dawn commented in English after they had gotten onto the second floor.

"This isn't our unit, or our school, where they take security a lot more seriously," Willow commented casually.

"Shouldn't matter, they knew we were coming and as visiting students from a different country, they should have better security," Lea snarled out. She then shook herself and forced her anger back before looking over at Willow. "So, how much information are we going to give Ooarai?"

"Anything they ask for aside for the fact that some of our teammates are male. We will give call signs of the tank commanders, and hopefully they won't ask too many questions until we reveal everyone after the match tomorrow," Willow answered.

"It will certainly be interesting to see how they react to our tank list," Dawn commented as they approached the door they were directed to.

"I'm excited about meeting some Asians and seeing how they 'stack' up!" Lea commented as her hands made a squeezing motion.

Dawn smirked a little at Lea's actions, while Willow stopped and turned around to level a glare at her.

"No grabbing them just yet Lea. Especially on the first meeting!" Willow scolded.

"But, but BOOBS!" Lea whined like a young child.

"They probably are lacking Lea. They are young Asians after all. Plus I doubt anyone can match your impressive assets," Dawn said as she slide behind Lea and reached around and cupped the smaller girl's breasts.

Lea gasped and gave a light moan as she leaned back into Dawn. "Tease!" She whined and moaned to her while Willow shook her head at them.

"Behave you two, we're here," Willow said, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose. 'How did I get saddled with two perverts?!'

"Sure thing, Willow," Dawn said as she slowly pulled her hands back as she let go of Lea, causing the smaller girl to shudder in pleasure at the feeling and give off a soft moan.

"Such a Tease!" Lea complained as she stepped away and tried to somewhat compose herself. 'Damn it Dawn, now I'm fucking horny!'

Willow sighed as she stepped up to the door and knocked politely.

Inside the small conference room sat Miho and Erwin. They had arrived several minutes earlier and were discussing various ideas about how to face St. Gloriana's this year.

"The issue, I see, is not knowing the specific tanks that Levinta has. If we knew what kind of tank models they have, we could plan better," Erwin grumbled as she looked over the rough plans that she and Miho had been going over since Levinta had pulled into port earlier today.

"Well, they should be here shortly, Erwin, I'm sure they will be giving us the information that we need in order to plan better for the upcoming match," Miho said, trying to sooth her vice-captain.

"I hope that they are competent at least, otherwise this tournament is not going to be easy. Even if they are, this is going to be a difficult tournament this year, too many people know what we are capable of right now," Erwin said. "Plus, how do you think Levinta will take the fact that the match was postponed till Friday? They were expecting to be facing St. Gloriana's tomorrow."

"Erwin…. There is something that you need to know about this upcoming tournament," Miho said slowly, her voice almost afraid.

Erwin froze and turned slowly to face her friend and commander. "Please don't tell me that this isn't something like what the student council dropped on us during our fight against Pravda!" she begged.

Miho grew visibly nervous and looked sadly away from her friend. "This morning Yukari brought me some information that we hadn't been told by the Minister," she started to say.

"What kind of information?" Erwin interrupted nervously.

"Evidently the Minister's wife used to be on the tankery team for Black Forest the last time our school had a team. Ooarai was a powerhouse back then and beat Black Forest three years in a row. When the team closed down here, before the Minister's wife's third year, it denied her the chance to redeem her school in her mind. Since then, she, and her husband, have made it their goal to close our school, no matter what it may take," Miho told her.

"Is that even legal?!" Erwin exclaimed in shock.

"Unfortunately, it is," Miho said sadly. "I don't know how we're going to avoid our school being shut down this time. Even if we win this year's tournament, I have a feeling they will find a way to shut us down, even if it's a slow-choking death over time."

"Damn them!" Erwin cursed as she stood up quickly and started to pace. "Damn them both to hell!"

Before Miho could comment further, hopefully to calm her friend down, there was a knock on the door of the conference room. Erwin, being the closest, moved over and opened the door, revealing Willow, Dawn and Lea on the other side. Willow's expression was a cross between annoyed and outright angry, causing Erwin to take a step back. Behind her, Lea's expression was one of frustration while being flushed, like she had just run a race. Dawn was smirking and the twinkle in her eyes caused Miho to grow nervous, like some wolf had just been let into their home.

"Can I help you?" Erwin asked shortly in Japanese, her temper getting the better of her as she returned Willow's glare, ounce for ounce.

"Are you the commander of Ooarai's tank team?" Willow asked her back scathingly in English.

Miho stood up and bowed politely to the group at the door. "I am the commander, my name is Nishizumi Miho. How can I help you?" She replied in English.

The one at the door stepped into the conference room and bowed back to Miho. "My name is Willow Gonzalez, I am the captain of the Levinta tank team," Willow introduced herself, her expression smoothing out and becoming relaxed.

Miho smiled in relief at finally meeting her counterpart, and waved at Erwin. "This is my vice-captain, Matsumoto Riko, but she prefers to be called by her soul name of Erwin," she said as she introduced her friend.

Willow nodded a little more respectfully to Erwin as she waved her two friends into the room with her and Erwin shut the door behind them. "The shorter one in the skimpy clothes is my executive officer, Lea Schultz. The more conservatively-dressed one is the platoon leader of my 1st Platoon, Dawn Volking. Together we are the senior officers of our team," she said.

"You make it sound like you're in a military unit," Erwin commented and moved to sit back down next to Miho, using the newcomers' appearance to put the new bad news behind her until she would be better able to deal with it.

The three from Levinta looked at each other after those words were spoken. Lea shrugged at Willow and Dawn just nodded slightly, causing Willow to sigh before they turned back to face the two from Ooarai.

"Can what we say in this conference room never leave here?" She asked as Lea stepped back to the door and locked it.

Miho and Erwin looked at each other, concerned at how quickly it seemed that things escalated to a very serious manner with their new partners.

"As long as it doesn't put my team mates in danger, then I can agree with that," Miho said very cautiously.

Willow nodded and smiled a soft, relaxed smile. "Then allow me to fully introduce us. I am Captain Willow Gonzalez, Commanding Officer of the 501st Reserve Tank Regiment of Her Majesty's Royal Australian Army. This is my executive officer, Lieutenant Lea Schultz, and my only platoon leader, Lieutenant Dawn Volking. We are also the tank team for Levinta High School," Willow told them proudly.

"Wait a minute! I was actually right?!" Erwin asked in stunned amazement, trying to keep her jaw from hitting the table.

"Well, we're only a reserve unit, and while we have adult members, they are more a training cadre and support personnel, while the command group and all the tankers are students of the high school," Dawn answered smoothly.

"Any other bombshells you want to drop on us?" Miho asked wryly with a light smirk, though her eyebrow was twitching at what she was just told.

"I'm a hermaphrodite and I think that the both of you look like the perfect candidates to be the mother of my children," Lea said cheerfully as she gazed lustfully at the two older high-schoolers.

"Ummm…." Miho and Erwin looked shocked and a little scared, at her statement and the looks she was giving them, and they started to slowly back away from the trio, just to be safe.

Willow reached over and smacked the back of Lea's head hard, causing her chin to hit her chest, and glared at her. "Stop saying things like that!" She then looked back over at the Ooarai girls and grimaced. "I apologize, my executive officer has a bad sense of humor. I can assure you that Lea is NOT a hermaphrodite, but is 100% female."

Miho sighed in relief and waved them all to take a seat around the table. As everyone sat down, a projector above the table came on and projected a map onto the table depicting the area around Ooarai and the town.

"So this is the battlefield eh?" Dawn asked as she looked at the map.

"Yes," Miho answered. "We'll be using the same area as last year when we fought against St. Gloriana's."

"The only difference this year is that you have more and heavier tanks available, and a lot more experience," Lea commented as she looked over the terrain.

"Yes, about that, what kind of tanks do you actually have? And how well trained are your girls?" Erwin asked carefully.

Dawn coughed and Lea smirked, while Willow just smiled mysteriously. Miho raised an eyebrow at this, wondering how such simple questions could get that reaction.

'Have we just been given a team that was as unskilled as I had last year? Or are they worse off? And if so, are their tanks actually any good?' she thought.

"My team is _very_ well trained, Erwin. I would have to put them at least on par with Pravda in skill, and unlike the other schools, we too have a rather eclectic selection of tanks," Willow said with a smirk.

"What do you mean by eclectic?" Miho asked, initially reassured by her words, but now getting worried again.

"Well I'll start with the light tank and end with our heavy tanks. Our light tank is a slightly modified BT-SV, a Russian design, very fast with well sloped, but relatively thin armor, great for scouting. Our mediums are a Chinese Type 59, a Russian T-34-85, which is also doubling as our long range communications vehicle, and a German Panther. Our heavies are my own IS, a KV-4, a Maus, and a TOG II, all slightly modified," Willow informed them.

"How the hell did you get a Maus?!" Erwin exclaimed. 'If they have a Maus, our odds just improved MASSIVELY!' She thought.

"It was gifted to the team by whoever is funding us. The same person who got us into the Army, by the way, and no, we don't know who they are, not that we could tell you if we knew, but we honestly just don't know who it was," Willow answered, though Dawn's expression darkened dangerously.

"I see. Well now that we know what you have it will make planning this much easier," Miho said thoughtfully.

"I hope we aren't going to try the same thing you did last year," Lea said casually, almost disdainfully.

"What's wrong with that tactic?" Erwin asked feeling insulted.

"What's wrong with it is that an enemy would have to be terminally stupid to fall for it twice, and from the past battle reports that we saw, St. Gloriana's didn't fall for it at all. You only truly started to excel once you were in the city," Lea said in a cold and matter of fact tone of voice.

'Ouch that was a cold and dispassionate way to break down what happened,' Miho thought while Erwin stared at Lea coldly and angrily.

"We were also inexperienced as a team, now we know so much more, and we work far better together than we did then," Miho responded with a light sigh. "Do you have any recommendations as to how we should approach this battle?"

"Do we know what kind of tanks they will be fielding?" Dawn asked soothingly, trying to bring people back into focus on what mattered right then.

"Unfortunately aside from the Churchill Mark VII and the Matildas from last year, no, I do not," Miho answered.

"Sounds like a job for Lightning and Ranger then," Dawn commented on thoughtfully.

"Tactic 320 I would say Dawn," Willow continued, staring down at the map.

"Tactic 320?" Erwin asked, her curiosity sparked by how calm and professional these three seemed to be, despite her outburst.

"Tactic 320 is where we use our two scouts to find the enemy, then our mediums cause harassing fire to drive the enemy into a solid wedge of heavy armor," Lea answered as she joined Willow at looking at the map.

"Isn't that the same tactic that we used against them?" Erwin asked in shocked incredulity.

"Actually, no it isn't. See, your tactic relied on there being a single tank that led the enemy to you. Our tactic uses two scouts to find the enemy, then two mediums to harass and distract them, breaking up their formation, if possible, allowing our heavy tanks to get into position to attack them. If their formation does split apart, our scouts join in harassing them and our heavy tanks will defeat them in detail," Willow answered for Lea.

"Hey, Willow, look at this valley here. It's perfect for trapping them; we might lose a tank or two, but we could devastate them regardless of what they bring," Lea said, pointing out to a long canyon that ended in a dead end.

"That would only work if we can somehow force them to go that way, otherwise it's pointless to plan on it to happen," Willow responded almost absently.

"Where would we fit into this tactic?" Miho asked. "I want to make this experiment work."

Willow and Lea looked up from the map to stare at Miho briefly before they both looked over to Dawn. The three seemed to communicate silently with each other before all three turned back to look at the two from Ooarai. Willow gave a soft, yet respectful smile to the two young women, but especially to Miho.

"Well I have an idea. I want your opinion on how we can work together," Willow said slowly.

"I'd love to hear your idea. We have never worked with another school before, so this is new territory for us, too," Miho replied.

"Well, I was thinking that your heavy tank and your tank destroyers will be with our heavy tanks, under my direct command. The rest of your tanks, along with all our mediums and our light tank will be under your direct command," Willow explained to Miho and Erwin. "My group's XO will be Erwin, and yours would be Dawn, that way both teams are represented in the command teams of each group."

Miho and Erwin looked at each other, briefly, then back to the trio who was watching them.

"So, a full integration. I like the idea, but we only have four days to train together before facing St. Gloriana's," Erwin said carefully, pleased at the idea, but afraid they didn't have enough time.

"Wait, what do you mean we have four days 'til the battle?!" Lea exclaimed in surprise, staring at Erwin.

"How did the match get postponed?" Willow asked calmly, having half-expected there to be some kind of delay.

"They were delayed due to engine trouble. They will be here on Thursday and we'll have the match on Friday, so that gives us a few days to train together and get to know each other," Miho said almost cheerfully.

Dawn, Lea and Willow looked at each other slowly. Heads were cocked to the side and several eyebrows were raised and lowered in rapid succession between them before Willow sighed and glared at Dawn. They then turned back to face their new partners who had been watching them curiously.

"Do you have secure radios, something that can't be easily listened to without a full super computer or proper codes?" Dawn asked carefully, glancing warily at Willow.

"We have our cell phones," Erwin said diffidently, as if that was all that they needed.

"Mein Gott, kann man noch dümmer sein?! (My God, can you be even more stupid?!)" Lea exclaimed in frustration.

"What did you just say?!" Erwin exclaimed angrily as she started to stand up. 'How dare that bitch insult me like that!' She thought, fully intending to pound an apology out of her.

"Erwin, calm down now!" Miho snapped as she kept looking at Lea. 'Now is NOT the time for this you idiot,' she thought. "Perhaps you could explain your comment, Lieutenant," Miho said commandingly, almost coldly.

Willow glanced at Lea and sighed. "Open mouth, insert foot and chew vigorously. Fix this _now_!" Willow growled at her, almost wolf like.

Lea gulped and nodded, not wanting to have Willow pissed-off at her, remembering what happened the last time some poor idiot seriously pissed-off Willow. "It's simple, each cell phone can be hacked, allowing your opponent the ability to see and hear what you're saying. Also, if you're using the original radios that your tanks were designed to have, then you're susceptible to being listened in on. Secure communications is one of the keys to victory, without that, your enemies will be able to know exactly what you're doing and act accordingly," Lea explained, trying to remain calm.

Erwin sat back down, glaring at Lea while Miho nodded in agreement.

"You're correct. Don't forget what Saunders High did to us last year Erwin. We got lucky that they couldn't crack into the cell phones, it might be different this year," Miho said just as calmly as she put a hand on Erwin's shoulder to calm her friend down.

"Do you have a suggestion then, as we do indeed have the stock radios in our tanks?" Erwin asked, fighting to calm down.

"There is always Cale. He might have a suggestion," Dawn said thoughtfully.

"Who is Cale?" Miho asked, curiosity sparking as gets to know more about her new allies.

"He is our communications specialist within our unit," Willow answered as she pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number.

"Wait, you have boys on your team?!" Erwin exclaimed as it finally processed that they were talking about a _boy_ working with them.

"Well we _are_ a full military unit, you didn't think all our instructors were female did you?" Lea said sarcastically.

Before anyone else could speak, Willow's phone picked up and she put it on speaker phone so everyone could hear.

"Staff Sergeant Schimdt, what can I do you for?" Cale's voice came over the phone.

"Cale, this is the Commander. I'm with the command group for Ooarai's team, and so you are aware, you are on speaker phone at this time," Willow said dryly. 'I hope that curbs his penchant for wise cracks and sexual jokes.'

"Oh, crap baskets!" Cale exclaimed suddenly.

"Wait, someone else says that too?" Miho asked loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Listen Cale, Ooarai doesn't have secure comms at all, they're using either the stock radios from when the tanks were produced, or cell phones right now. Can you work your magic?" Willow asked, ignoring Miho's comment.

"Umm, that depends ma'am. How many tanks are we talking about, and how many RTs per tank?" Cale asked slowly, becoming serious.

"Eight tanks, two RTs per tank, preferably VRC-91F model sets, if you can spare them," Willow told him.

"Hmm, that many sets will take us a while to install, and we don't have the time right now, given that the match is tomorrow," Cale said sadly.

"About that, it seems that we're going to be here for a bit longer before the match than we thought. Our opponent won't be here and able to fight until Friday," Lea broke in to say.

"Huh, well in that case, given its Sunday, I could _probably_ finish installing that many sets before the match. Right now I'm out of Fox model sets; we just finished converting the last of them two days ago, so I have _plenty_ of Golf model sets." Cale informed them. "However if I'm installing eight sets in four days, someone else is going to need to teach the radio operators how to use them, all of my people will be too busy to teach if we're going to make that deadline. And while I'm at it, which commsec codes are we going to be using for this? The Alpha set or the Hotel set?"

"The Hotel set of course you idiot! You know better than to suggest giving civilians the Alpha codes!" Willow snapped in anger.

"Right! Sorry! So…when should my team start working on those tanks?" Cale responded meekly, trying to appease Willow's anger.

Willow calmed down rapidly and looked over to Miho and Erwin and raised an eyebrow at them in inquiry.

"Umm, can you start today Cale?" Miho asked hesitantly, almost shyly.

"Sure, shouldn't be an issue. I'll grab Masters, King and Pfeiffer and we'll check the tanks out to determine what we'll need, then get the stuff together and get cracking on it! We should be able to start in about an hour or two for the inspection, gotta park the tanks first ya know," He replied excitedly.

"So, if you're using all our radio people to install the new sets, do you have a recommendation of who is able to teach the classes of how to use the new radios?" Willow asked with a slightly sarcastic voice.

"How about the Sergeant Major? You know how much Sergeant Major likes to teach," He recommended.

"Thanks Cale, sounds perfect. I'll send a text later about that then. Get your team together and head to the Ooarai tank park as soon as you've parked our tanks and start your inspection," Willow ordered.

"Roger Ma'am, I'll let you know a better ETA after we check out the tanks. Just, please, make sure that the Ooarai tank crews know we're coming over and are ready for us," Cale said.

"I'll make sure that they are waiting for you Staff Sergeant," Miho said formally.

"All right, catch ya'll later!" He said before he hung up.

Willow smirked and looked up at the Ooarai girls. "So, communications won't be an issue. Where should I have my Sergeant Major meet up with your people to train them how to use your new equipment? And when as well?" Willow asked them.

Miho looked at Erwin and Erwin looked back. "Well how does tomorrow morning sound, at the tank park?" Erwin asked.

"That should be perfect. I'm sure my Sergeant Major can get all of your people properly trained in the use of their new equipment," Willow said with a light smile.

"Thank you, this will make things a lot smoother when we face our opponents in the upcoming tournament," Miho said with a matching smile.

David grinned as he rode outside his commander's hatch on Fortress 2, his KV-4 heavy tank. Behind him, tied to the bustle rack, were the personal bags of not just his crew, but also Willow, and Lea. 'The things I do for my officers,' he thought with a sigh and a lopsided grin. He was in uniform while they moved the tank, but instead of the traditional helmet that they were supposed to wear, he only had a set of headphones with a mic covering his ears.

"Fortress, this is Lightning, why are _you_ leading the way to the tank park?" Staff Sergeant Nicholas Hurst, also known as Mach to his friends, asked via the radio.

"Easy, do _you_ know where the tank park is in this city? Did you memorize the route from the port to the park?" David asked in return over his radio.

"I hate it when you go all logical on me," came the response, along with several chuckles from the radio.

David shook his head as he looked around. They were traveling through Ooarai town, and it was a beautiful city. There were signs of recent construction around that were easy to see. As they traveled through the city, people kept staring at the tanks that were driving through.

"Fortress this is Avenger, we have a _lot_ of people who are staring at us," Angela said over the radio as she road topside aboard her TOG II heavy tank.

"Yeah, I noticed. You'd think that they had seen tanks running through town before, considering there was a match here last year, and that Japan's champions from last year are here," He replied.

"It might be the fact that we have boys riding in the commander's hatches and driver's hatches of several of our tanks," Shawn chimed in.

"Well, they'll just have to get used to it. The rest of the world allows boys to participate in tankery, so a pox on them if they think we're not capable," David responded, a little bit of anger creeping into his voice.

"Stalker this is Dakka, calm down man, we'll show these people how the 501st rolls!" came the voice of Lea's gunner over the radio as he temporarily commanded her tank for this movement.

"I wonder how the Ooarai team is going to react when we pull in and get off," Angela mused, off comms, as they finally came in sight of the tank park they would be staying at for the near future.

As David's KV-4 entered the tank park it came to a stop and he got out and climbed down, he then started to lead his tank deeper into the park. He walked in and was approached by a short, brown-haired, young woman in an Ooarai uniform.

"Excuse me, who are…" She stopped and stared, in shock, at David and the line of tanks behind him.

David smiled at her and bowed politely. "Sergeant Major David Sanders, of the 501st Tank Regiment, also the 4th in command of the Levinta tankery team. Behind me is the Levinta High School tankery team," he said politely as he waited for a response.

"Uh…a _BOY_ on a tankery team?! A _CUTE BOY_?!" She cried out and looked a little unstable, weaving back and forth as if she might faint.

"Easy there," David said as he reached out to lightly grasp her elbow to help her stay steady. "Can you tell me where I can park our tanks?" He asked. 'Never been called cute before, do they not have a boys' school nearby?'

"Ummmm…." She slowly gathered her bearings again, then stared at David, standing there in his summer uniform with the headset around his neck, and blushed. "I'll lead you there," she said shyly. "Ummm, do you think you could tell me how boys are allowed to do tankery?"

"Sure Miss, I don't mind at all," David responded as he held out an arm to escort her.

She blushed again, but looped her arm in his and started to lead him to where Levinta would be parking their tanks. Behind the two, unknown to David, the whole scene was passed to every single person on the team except for the three officers.

As they walked through the park, David looked over at her. She was about the same height as he, skinny without being a stick, and her school uniform fit her well. Her brown hair came to just passed her shoulders and her blue eyes occasionally flitted over to look at him. He smiled at her as he saw her look at him again. 

"So what's your name?" He asked her.

"Krista Miyafuji," she answered shyly. "Ummm...could you tell me how your team has boys on it?"

"Certainly Krista. The rest of the world, unlike Japan, does not restrict tankery to just girls, boys are allowed to play as well, and can even be on the same team, as long as we treat each other with respect," David told her. "So what do you do for Ooarai's team?"

"I'm the new commander for Turtle team," she told him proudly.

"That's the hetzer right?" He asked.

"Yes, it's not the best tank, but my team does rather well on it. We're also a full crew, rather than like the previous Student Council crew, which was short one person," she answered.

"That's good! We had a tough time getting our team together because we thought we would have to fall in line with Japan's rule set and field a girls-only team, which wouldn't have been more than two, MAYBE three tanks," David informed her.

"That would have made the upcoming tournament difficult indeed," Krista commented as she came to a stop in front of one of the large maintenance buildings. "This is the maintenance bay for your school."

"Thank you very much for guiding me, I'm sure we'll be seeing more of each other tomorrow during the match," David said cheerfully.

"Umm, actually the match won't be until Friday because our opponents had a delay," Krista said as she turned to watch the other Levinta tanks starting to pull in and around, being backed-up by the commanders in front of the maintenance hangar one at a time, from the largest to the smallest.

"Well, poop on a stick! Oh well, at least it means we can get familiar with the area before the match. Nicholas will like that," David mused as he finished guiding his tank to its spot with a grimace.

"Well, our maintenance hangar is over there," Krista pointed to one, maybe 150 meters away, "and I'm sure we'll be seeing more of each other over the next few days." 'At least I hope we do,' she thought with a light blush as she started to leave.

David nodded to her with a smile. "Yeah, after all we have to work together for the next year, so we should be seeing each other a lot. Unfortunately I have to get these tanks parked and our things put away at our temporary quarters."

"No problem, David. Ummmm, it was nice meeting you," she said shyly as she left.

David stared after her for a little bit before shaking his head. 'Was she swaying her hips like that on purpose?' he thought before he turning back to make sure everyone was parking their tanks properly and that his crew was off loading all of their bags.

"Hey boss, you need help getting the CO and XO's bags to the barracks?" Shawn Masters, his gunner, asked.

"Naw, I got it," He answered as he shouldered his bag, then threw the other two on top of his and started to leave. "Everyone get settled down, we have a few extra days 'til the battle, evidently,"

David entered their temporary barracks and moved up to the civilian employee of the conference center.

"Excuse me, could you please tell me where the quarters for Willow Gonzalez, Lea Schultz and David Sanders are?" He asked politely as he stood there holding all three bags.

The young woman looked at him critically before nodding. "Yes, all three are right next to each other. Ms. Gonzalez is in room 312, Ms. Schultz is in room 313 and your room is 314. Are you picking up the keys for each of the other two?" She asked.

"Unfortunately, no, but I do need to put their bags in their rooms, if at all possible," David responded.

"I can help you with that Mr. Sanders," she said as she led him up to the rooms.

She let him into each room where he placed the bags on each of the beds before he accepted the key to his room.

"Thank you for the help ma'am," he said.

"No problem Mr. Sanders, enjoy your stay here," she responded before leaving him.

David opened his room and entered, he let the door swing shut as he dropped his bag on the bed and moved to take a needed shower, not realizing that his door never fully shut.

Willow, Dawn and Lea left from the conference room several hours later. All three were tired, as they headed for where they were staying while in Ooarai.

"Damn that took a long time!" Lea complained as the three walked out of the building.

"Yes but now we don't have to worry about plans, just practicing and getting to know each other," Willow countered.

"Too true, though I could kill for a shower right now!" Dawn agreed.

As they arrived at their temporary living quarters they met the same woman that had assisted David in getting bags into the rooms.

"Can I help you, ladies?" she asked as she glanced at them. 'Two respectable young women, and a slut? Where the hell did they find _HER_?'

"Yes, my name is Willow Gonzalez, these are my associates, Dawn Volking and Lea Schultz, we have reservations here," Willow said as she waved to her two companions.

"Ah, yes, we've been expecting you," the hostess said as she pulled out three keys. "Also a Mr. Sanders brought bags up for you, Ms. Gonzalez and Ms. Schultz. I helped make sure they were put into your rooms."

"Thank you, I appreciate that information," Willow said with a smile as she took the keys and handed the ones to Dawn and Lea that were required.

"Enjoy your stay here," the hostess said cheerfully as the trio started to head upstairs to their rooms.

As they reached the third floor where their rooms were, they walked down the hall.

"I hope that someone else thought to bring my bags up," Dawn said with a slight grumble. "Both of you are so lucky that David is willing to help you out so much."

"That's because David is a good friend and he knew how tired I would be after that meeting," Willow countered with a grin.

"Naw, it's because David is a sweetheart and can't resist helping a girl who needs it," Lea said with a smirk.

Dawn stared at Lea, then narrowed her eyes. "You asked him to bring your things, didn't you?!" she said sharply.

"Of course I did. I figured this meeting was going to go for several hours and I didn't want to have to hunt down my bag!" Lea said smugly.

"This is one of those times in which I fucking hate you Lea," Dawn growled as she came to her room and moved to open her door. "Why do you take advantage of his kindness?"

"Because he lets me, and the fact that when he does help me, I show my appreciation for what he willingly does for me," Lea countered as she sauntered off for her room.

Willow shook her head at the two bickering as she opened her door and stepped into her room.

Lea watched as the other two shut their doors firmly, then looked at the door next to hers. She had seen the location of each person's room when they had been receiving their keys, and knew that David was next to her. When she looked, she saw that the door was slightly cracked open. She grinned briefly, before shaking her head and entering her room. As she walked in she saw that her bag was indeed there, sitting on her bed.

"Well, I did promise to reward him if he brought my bag here," she said softly to herself with a lecherous smirk.

She walked back out of her room, quietly, but firmly, shutting her door before she walked up to David's door. She listened at the door and heard the shower running and her grin widened.

'I did want to take a shower,' she thought as she quietly entered his room and shut the door.

End Chapter

Author's Notes

Wow that was a long chapter! It could have been longer too, I had planned originally to add in some training and then the battle against Saint Gloriana's, but that would have made this chapter just a bit TOO long! And I would have shorted something, which wouldn't have done the story any justice at all. Anyway thank you for reading, I love getting constructive criticism reviews on my stories! Yes I do have an editor, and sometimes my editor is VERY busy which delays me putting out chapters, but I would rather have you receive something that has been edited and is the best I can possibly make it for story flow/spelling/grammar, rather than some rapidly put out piece of crap that makes people wonder what crack I was smoking and why wasn't I sharing it with ya'll. Until next chapter!


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